Wrist strength is something you often don't appreciate until it's lacking: You may notice that your wrists feel weak during daily tasks like opening jars or doors, or maybe you experience wrist pain when performing push-ups or other strength-training exercises.
Or perhaps weak wrists are negatively impacting your pickleball game. Whatever your motivation, you can strengthen your wrists to reduce pain, improve performance and increase your quality of life.
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Building stronger wrists starts with isometric exercises, which train you to produce force and resist motion. Then, you can use active exercises to strengthen your wrist in multiple directions.
Fortunately, it doesn't take long to build wrist strength. In an April 2018 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, people significantly improved their motor control and strength by doing wrist exercises for just six weeks.
Wrist Strength vs. Grip Strength
Before we get into our suggested exercises, you might be wondering about the difference between grip strength and wrist strength. Will strengthening your wrists improve your grip?
Grip strength helps you hold onto things. It varies depending on what you're holding. For example, you might be able to hold heavy dumbbells but struggle to hang from a pull-up bar.
A strong grip is built with a combination of forearm and hand strength. Because grip is so task-specific, it's essential to practice expressing grip strength in the areas that are important to you, such as lifting weights, rock climbing or simply carrying the groceries.
Wrist strength refers to your ability to produce and resist force through your wrist. It can be one component of grip strength, since your wrists attach your hands to the rest of your body.
However, training your wrists alone won't help you build an impressive grip. That's because you must use lighter weights for the wrist exercises below. You'll need to also train with heavy loads (including your own bodyweight) if you really want to improve your grip strength.
How Can I Increase My Wrist Size?
Building stronger wrists is great. But what should you do if you also want to increase their size?
Here's the thing: The circumference of your wrist is largely determined by the shape and size of your bones. There's not much you can do to change this, assuming you've already gone through puberty.
What you can do is increase the size of your forearm muscles to give the appearance of larger lower arms. Some of the best exercises for growing your forearms include:
- Wrist curls and extensions (videos below)
- Reverse curls
- Hammer curls
- Loaded carries
- Pull-ups
- Rows
- Deadlifts
- Heavy dumbbell exercises
6 Wrist-Strengthening Exercises
1. Wrist Isometric Holds
The easiest way to begin building stronger wrists is with isometric holds. Isometrics ask you to contract your muscles to push against an opposing force or immovable object.
Isometrics are great because they teach your body to produce a lot of force in a safe setting. They can also improve your wrist stability, which means you're less likely to end up in painful positions.
Try performing wrist isometrics in multiple directions including up and down, side to side and rotationally. Each isometric hold shown in this video corresponds with an active exercise below.
- Sit on a chair with one forearm resting on your thigh.
- Grab your resting side hand with your opposite hand. Push against your resting side and try to get it to move. You can push it down, up and to each side.
- Use the resting side hand to push back. Resist any movement.
- Start with 3 to 5 3-second isometric holds for each position. As you get stronger, work toward 10 to 15 seconds per hold.
2. Quadruped Wrist Rocking
Wrist rocking is a floor drill that improves your wrists' ability to support your body weight. This is important if you want to reduce wrist pain when performing push-ups or other hand-supported exercises.
- Begin on the floor in an all fours position with your knees outside your hips. Place your palms on the floor underneath your shoulders with your fingers pointing forward.
- Gently rock your hips forward. Keep your palms flat on the floor as you move into wrist extension. Do not push into any pain.
- Rock backward, relieving the pressure on your wrists. Continue rocking backward and forward for 5 to 10 reps.
Tip
Want to make this more challenging? Turn your hands around so your fingers are pointing behind you. Repeat the same steps. (With this variation, the backward rocking is the more intense position.)
3. Wrist Curls
Wrist curls improve your wrist flexion strength. Your wrists flex when your hand and forearm muscles contract to curl your palms up toward your body.
This exercise is typically performed with dumbbells, but you can also use a resistance band anchored around your feet. A light weighted bar or dowel can also work.
- Hold two light dumbbells and with your forearms on your thighs and your palms facing up. Let your hands hang a past your knees. Relax your hands so the weights rest in your fingers.
- Squeeze your hands, then bend your wrists to raise your palms as close to your forearms as possible.
- Pause, then slowly reverse the motion to lower the weight back to your fingers.
- Perform 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps.
4. Wrist Extensions
Wrist extensions — also known as reverse wrist curls — train your ability to extend your wrists. Extension is the opposite of flexion and involves curling the tops of your hands up toward your body.
Just like with regular wrist curls, you can perform reverse wrist curls using dumbbells, resistance bands or a light weighted bar.
- Hold two light dumbbells and with your forearms on your thighs and your palms facing up. Let your hands hang a past your knees. Relax your hands so the weights rest in your fingers.
- Squeeze your hands, then flex your wrists to raise your palms as close to your forearms as possible.
- Pause, then slowly reverse the motion to lower the weight back to your fingers.
- Perform 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps.
5. Wrist Rotations
Your wrist is a rotational joint, just like your shoulders and hips. Each time you open a door handle or jar, you rotate your wrists. Any wrist strengthening program would be incomplete without training this essential movement.
- Hold two light dumbbells with your forearms on your thighs and your palms facing down. Let your hands hang a past your knees. Relax your hands so the weights rest in your fingers.
- Squeeze your hands, then slowly rotate your wrists to turn your palms up to the ceiling.
- Pause, then slowly reverse the motion to rotate your palms back toward the floor.
- Perform 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps.
6. Wrist Deviations
Wrist deviations are like curls and extensions, but with your palms facing in toward each other. This movement strengthens your wrists' ability to move side to side.
- Hold two light dumbbells and with your forearms on your thighs and your palms facing in. Let your hands hang a past your knees. Relax your hands so the weights rest in your fingers.
- Squeeze your hands, then bend your wrists to raise the inside of your hands as close to your forearms as possible.
- Pause, then slowly reverse the motion. Curl the bottoms of your hands as close toward the other side of your forearms as possible.
- Perform 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps.